Lamanta Reese lived much of his gang life in virtual reality, posting videos on YouTube of him and others taunting rivals. He died at age 19 in the real world, bleeding from his head onto a porch on Chicago's South Side after one of those gang rivals, prosecutors say, shot him 11 times. Another possible factor in his slaying: A smiley-face emoji Reese posted that the suspected gunman may have interpreted as a slight about his mom.

The essential thing to remember about social media is that it lets you seek or enjoy the companionship of others using means that also let you consume information and that are shared by the news media.

Remember the Marlboro Man, that stalwart image forever linked to the American West? A symbol of ruggedness, he was used by the Philip Morris tobacco company to sell millions and millions of cigarettes from 1954 to 1999.

From the violent lyrics of rap music to the crude comments of teenagers in video-game chat rooms, the U.S. Supreme Court struggled Monday over where to draw the line between free speech and illegal threats in the digital age.

It’s the stuff of science-fiction films: You wake up to find that there’s an impostor on the loose. The impostor looks just like you and is pretending to be you, even managing to fool some of your closest friends.

In the not-so-distant past, the IT department usually served as blend of fix-it shop and complaint desk. They’ve evolved since then, though many firms still underutilize their IT departments because they see technology in a reactive way.